Month: February 2023

The German government wants to temporarily ease visa restrictions for survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria who have close family ties to Germany if they are facing homelessness or were injured.  “It’s about helping in times of need. We want to make it possible for Turkish or Syrian families in Germany to bring close relatives from the disaster region,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser tweeted late Saturday.  “They can find shelter with us and receive medical treatment,” Faeser said. “With regular visas, which are issued quickly and are valid for three months.”  However, not all the requirements of …

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There is no bigger cheerleader of awards season than Richard E. Grant.  He brings joy to the red carpet, snapping selfies with stars and posting congratulations to nominees on social media.  Now this enthusiasm has been tapped to host the EE BAFTA Film Awards on February 19 at the Royal Festival Hall.  “I’m an unabashed fan of movies and of talent and always have been. I’ve never been disingenuous or, you know, blasé about that,” he says. “I probably have to restrain myself from permanently taking selfies with every nominee and winner coming up on the stage.”  “From that point …

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday hailed efforts to restore power generation systems damaged by Russian attacks but warned the population it was too early to declare victory on the energy front. Zelenskyy said power workers had done such a good job repairing the damage caused by Russian missile and drone strikes on Friday that most people had not had to face too many outages on Saturday and Sunday. “The very fact that … after a massive missile strike this week, we can have such peaceful energy days proves the professionalism of our energy workers,” he said in an evening …

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Turkey is targeting 134 contractors and others for alleged shoddy and illegal construction methods even as rescuers retrieve more bodies from collapsed buildings after a pair of earthquakes last week killed more than 33,000 people and injured another 92,000. Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag has vowed to punish anyone responsible for the collapse of thousands of buildings as the quakes last Monday devastated large portions of southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. He said Sunday that to date three people had been arrested pending trial, seven people detained and seven others barred from leaving the country. Even as authorities assessed responsibility …

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Moldova’s former interior minister, Dorin Recean, is expected to be approved as the country’s new prime minister by parliament as soon as this week, following the February 10 resignation of Natalia Gavrilita. Moldovan President Maia Sandu nominated Recean to the post after Gavrilita stepped down after a year-and-a-half in office. Recean is Sandu’s defense and security adviser. Recean, 48, who served as interior minister from 2012 to 2015, will have 15 days to form a new government to present to parliament for a confidence vote. Moldova’s ruling party, the Party of Action and Solidarity, has a 63 percent majority of …

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When war broke out in Ukraine, Aydin Sisman’s relatives there fled to the ancient city of Antakya, in a southeastern corner of Turkey that borders Syria. They may have escaped one disaster, but another found them in their new home. They were staying with Sisman’s Ukrainian mother-in-law when their building collapsed last Monday as a 7.8 magnitude earthquake leveled much of Antakya and ravaged the region in what some in Turkey are calling the disaster of the century. “We have Ukrainian guests who fled the war, and they are also lying inside. We have had no contact.” said Sisman, whose …

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Greece’s foreign minister visited Turkey on Sunday in a show of support after the country was hit by a devastating earthquake last Monday, despite a longstanding rivalry between the two NATO countries. Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was met with a warm embrace by his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, according to footage on state-run ERT TV, before they boarded helicopters to quake-hit regions. His arrival marks the first visit by a European minister to Turkey since the earthquake. “I would like to convey to the Turkish leadership and the Turkish people the warmest condolences of the Mitsotakis government and the entire …

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Visitors to one of Florence’s most iconic monuments — the Baptistry of San Giovanni, opposite the city’s Duomo — are getting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see its ceiling mosaics up close thanks to an innovative approach to a planned restoration effort. Rather than limit the public’s access during the six-year cleaning of the vault, officials built a scaffolding platform for the art restorers that will also allow small numbers of visitors to see the ceiling mosaics at eye level. “We had to turn this occasion into an opportunity to make it even more accessible and usable by the public through …

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Rescuers continued to pull out survivors Saturday, five days after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake shook Turkey and Syria. Some rescue operations in Turkey were stopped amid reports of nearby looting. More than 28,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria, officials say, and millions more have been left homeless. Martin Griffiths, United Nations aid chief, said he expects the death toll to double. Syria’s northwestern rebel-held region was the country’s hardest hit area. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday that the earthquake was the “disaster of the century.” In Turkey, rescue operations were conducted amid a massive amount of …

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In a small coal-mining town on Ukraine’s eastern front line, a fight for strategic superiority is being waged in a battlefield steeped with symbolism as the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion nears. The town of Vuhledar, meaning “gift of coal,” has emerged as a critical hot spot in the fight for the Donetsk province that would give both sides — the Ukrainian forces who hold the urban center, and the Russians positioned in the suburbs — a tactical upper hand in the greater battle for the Donbas region. Located on an elevated plane that is one of the few high-terrain …

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Tens of thousands of teachers took to Lisbon’s streets Saturday in one of the biggest protests in Portugal in recent years as the Socialist government faces a wave of discontent over the cost-of-living crisis. “(We) have been badly treated for a long time,” said Portuguese language teacher Maria Coelho, 55, as she held a banner reading “Respect” at the protest organized by the FENPROF union. “We are here today, and we will be here for many more to come,” she added. The union said it expected more than 100,000 people to take part in the protest. No police estimate of …

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